High-order tunable multi-wavelength random Raman fiber laser based on few-mode fiber filter

Abstract

In recent years, multi-wavelength fiber lasers have become one of the research hotspots and have been extensively applied in optical fiber communication systems. However, the presented multi-wavelength fiber lasers mainly operate in the 1.5 μm band. In this paper, a few-mode fiber filter-based cascaded high-order tunable multi-wavelength random Raman fiber laser (MWRRFL) is demonstrated, for the first time, in which a tuning range covers the 1.1–1.5 μm band. In the half-open MWRRFL, a few-mode fiber-based intermodal interferometer filter is inserted in the point reflector as a wavelength selector. The synergetic effect including high Raman gain and Rayleigh backscattering intensity in the hybrid of dispersion-shifted fiber and standard single-mode fiber is employed. It presents the capability for flat multi-wavelength random lasing stimulation. As a result, the wavelength channel number of the 6th-order random lasing is 6, with a maximum power variation of 4.66 dB and good temporal stability. The proposed cascaded tunable MWRRFL could provide a versatile source for optical fiber communication, optical fiber sensing, spectrum analysis, etc.